I got up and looked out the window. I couldn’t see Javi through the leafy branches, but I guess that was the point. I was pretty sure that fort was under the same tree where Vero had lost her virginity to him the summer before she’d left for college.
She lifted the bottom of her shirt and swiped on some deodorant, then tightened her ponytail high on her head. She stripped a pillowcase from one of the pillows on her bed.
“What are you doing?” I asked as she stuck her head out the window.
“Covering Ramón’s stupid camera. He’s got them over every door. If he catches me sneaking off, he’ll blab to my mom.” She tossed the pillowcase a few feet to the left. We watched as it fell like a curtain over the camera.
“There,” she said. “Plausible deniability. Stay here,” she said, straddling the sill.
“Be careful! That doesn’t look safe!”
“Don’t worry. I’ve done it a million times before. I’m just going to say a quick hello to Javi and I’ll come right back.” She slid out the window, gripping the frame as her feet groped for the ladder. “My mom and Aunt Gloria probably won’t be home until six. If theymake it home before I do, stay in my room and keep my bedroom door shut. And leave my window cracked,” she added.
I didn’t have a chance to object before she’d scurried down the rungs and run out of sight.
CHAPTER 5
What was I going to do in Vero’s bedroom for an hour until she got back? I checked my phone for messages from Nick, hoping no news was good news. My fingers hovered over the screen. Would he think I was checking up on him if I sent him a text? He’d said he would call me right away if anything came up.
But on second thought, that wasn’t exactly what he had said. What he had actually said was,I’ll call you right away if there’s anything you need to know.
I felt uneasy as I considered that. Those words had come to take on new meaning over the last four weeks. Ever since Nick and I had embraced a policy of one hundred percent honesty with each other. On the rare occasions when we had been faced with a truth one of us couldn’t (or wouldn’t) tell the other,there’s nothing you need to knowhad become a code:Everything is fine. You’ll just have to trust me.
I opened my messages and started typing a text to Nick.
Finlay:Made it to Vero’s. Thank you again for taking care of the kids. Hope they’re being good. I’ll make it up to you when I get back.
I added a kissing emoji, then deleted it and replaced it with a heart. Then I added the kissing emoji after the heart. Were two emojis too much? I tappedSendbefore I could talk myself into editing the message again.
Three bubbles appeared on the screen.
Nick:The kids are great. So am I. Just for the record, you don’t owe me anything, but if you insist on offering up a token of your appreciation, I can think of plenty of ways to cash in that IOU when you get back. Give Vero a hug from me. I love you. Be safe.
I tamped down the stubborn smile that stretched across my face.
Finlay:I love you, too.
Nick:By the way, if you were a two-year-old with sticky fingers, where would you hide my car keys?
I blanched as I remembered where Zach had hidden my van keys when he’d stolen them off the credenza in the foyer a week ago. After a maddening two-hour search of the entire house, I’d found and dredged them out of the downstairs toilet. I laughed darkly, remembering Zach’s tiny giggle in the kitchen that morning.
Finlay:Try the pantry.
A moment passed.
Nick:Thanks for solving that mystery! We’re heading to the station for a quick field trip. I’ll check in later tonight after I put the kids to bed.
He added a kissing emoji and a tongue-wagging wink.
I relaxed a little. Maybe Nick was right and I hadn’t given him enough credit. Clearly, I had been worrying for nothing.
I paced the length of Vero’s bedroom, wishing I had thought to use the bathroom the moment I’d arrived. It had been a long drive, and the coffee I’d had that morning was already taking up too much space in my bladder. I looked around for anything to distract myself, starting with the contents of the bookshelves above her desk. I tipped my head to the side, reading the spines: economics books, personal finance books, romance novels, suspense novels, even a handful of my own novels… I picked up a framed photo of Ramón, Vero, and Javi, taken the day of Vero’s high school graduation. It was the same one in her photo album, the one Javi had been mooning over yesterday in her room.
A string of four tiny photos fell out of their hiding place in the bottom of the frame. I grinned as I realized where the pictures had been taken. Vero and Javi were drunk in a photo booth on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, holding each other’s faces as they laughed and kissed. Their plastic bat and spider rings sat proudly on their fourth fingers, and Vero’s stolen white veil hung lopsided on her head. It hadn’t been their names on the wedding certificate they found on the nightstand in his hotel room the next morning, and they hadn’t remembered any of it—or so they’d claimed. But here it was—the undeniable proof—and I couldn’t help but wish I had been there to see it. They really were perfect for each other.
I tucked the photo strip back under the frame and paused. A large brown envelope lay on the shelf beside it. A label had been stuck to the front:VERONICA RAMIREZ (DEFENDANT). I glanced back at the window before loosening the string that held the envelope closed. I pulled out the stack of papers inside. It looked like a repository for everything Vero had collected about her case since she’d been home. Typed letters from her lawyer. Sheets from ayellow legal pad, covered with notes in Vero’s handwriting. Notifications of every time she’d had to appear in court. Instructions for caring for and charging her ankle monitor, photocopied from a manufacturer’s manual, along with her receipt.
I skimmed the letters, finding nothing useful inside them except for a mention of a court date. I flipped to Vero’s handwritten notes. The names Mia, Ava, Jackson, and Bennett had been crossed through with a line, as if Vero had been trying to solve the mystery of who had stolen the money herself. One name had been thoroughly scratched out, the ballpoint pen leaving deep ruts in its wake. I took a photo of everything in the file, capturing as many of the legible names as I could manage. Even if Vero and I couldn’t solve the crime together, I could take all this information home with me. With a little help from Nick and Cam, maybe I could figure something out.
